صافي صافي روائيا
Date
2008-07-26
Authors
نبيل نعيم عبد الفتاح عقيلان
Nabeel Naeem Abdul-Fattah Eqilan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AL-Quds University
جامعة القدس
جامعة القدس
Abstract
This research has aimed to trace and fathom the narrative art of the novelist
Safi Safi in an attempt to explore the underpinnings and the characteristics
which have shaped the distinctive features of this art. Safi has gained
recognition in the literary arena since the publication of his first novel, Haj
Ismael, which won the Palestinian Writers Union’s award in 1989. Since then,
Safi has written a number of novels, and has become a member of the writers’
union’s executive committee since 1992. The present study covers the period
between 1990 and the appearance of Safi’s The Curve in 2005.
The study opens with an overview of the novelist’s upbringing and the micromacro
cosmoses that constituted the environment in which he was raised, with
some attention being paid to the manner in which that upbringing helped to
shape the formative seeds of his education in a way which left its impact on
his fictional creativity. For, the young Safi opened his eyes to the scenes of
the 1948 Nakba, which he had to undergo with his family at the outskirts of
Deir-Ammar refugee camp in the Ramallah district. With the rest of his
Palestian people, Safi has all along shared and embraced the dream of return
to the native soil and also of being freed from the anguish of homelessness.
However, at the age of twelve, and like many of his generation, he suffered
the shock of the 1967 Arab defeat which left a tremendous impact both on his
heart and mind. Afterwards, Safi became more directly involved in political
activities which led him to suffer the experience of imprisonment (1980) in a
way that left its marks on most of his fictional writings.
Now in as much as the novel constitutes an expression of the interaction
between the individual and his social and cultural milieu, and in as much as it
describes the kind of evolution resulting from the aforementioned interaction,
this literary genre has admitted a variety of definitions based on its content
and form, which has led to classifying novels into categories such as the
conventional, the modern, the modern historical and the new novel. The
present study has sought to demarcate these categories by clarifying the basic
features of each category and has then placed the novelist’s works in their
relevant categories. Subsequently, the study has dealt with the influence of the
Oslo Accords on the content and artistic form of Safi’s novels.
After clarifying the elements and features of theoretical definitions, the study
has moved on to consider the empirical aspect where the specific content and
subject-matter of each of the writer’s following novels are explored in order
of publication (Haj Ismael, The Stolen Dream, Ascending Again, Alyaseera,
Shihab, and finally The Curve). This laying out of relevant content and
subject-matter constituted a preface, preparing the ground for going into the
details of the narrative texture in Safi’s works. The content and theme of each
novel has been approached and dealt with separately to show the wide variety
of subject-matter which included the following: the impact of self / collective
oppression in the multiplicity of its sources and the variance of its effects; the
phenomenon of displacement and homesickness; the duality of the
woman/child issue and the impact of oppression and exploitation on their
intertwined fates; and the extant contradictions between the self (ego) and the
other in as much as the relation between the two influences life style and its
various features. The study has shown how these themes have focused on
politically criticizing the internal Palestinian situation and its Pan-Arab
counterpart as well as exposing the existent patterns of thinking and the
shallowness of awareness which have both obstructed the movement of social
progress and emancipation. A succinct summary of the most important events
in each novel preceded the detailed presentation of the above-mentioned
themes.
Subsequent to the foregoing presentation the study has moved on to analyze
the primary components of a novel, which include such elements as character,
setting (time and place), plot and conflict. This analysis was based on a
thorough analysis of each individual novel as a distinctive and independent
entity in its own right. Examples and parts of text have been cited to reinforce
the analysis and support the presented remarks, all against a background of
the critical views of other researchers and critics who concerned themselves
with the works of our novelist.
After this, the present study dealt with the artistic aspects in the novels
covered here, paying special attention to such aspects as language, variety of
narrative styles, dialogue and flashbacks. The researcher has noted how the
variety of styles reflects the variety in themes and implications in Safi’s
different novels. The study has provided theoretical definitions for all artistic
aspects and cited relevant examples and texts to illustrate each given aspect,
making use also of the opinions and views of critics and other specialized
studies. Nor has this research overlooked other artistic phenomena which
have likewise contributed to enriching the fictional/narrative form and content
in the novelist’s works such as the phenomenon of utilizing different types of
intertextuality as well as heritage and mythology which have all added to the
cultural enrichment of the texts and have helped to adorn them with an
effective human touch.
Through exploring the various aspects of form and content in Safi’s fictional
experience, and presenting the most important critical views about his literary
endeavor, this study has sought to respond to a number of questions regarding
the fictional/narrative art of Safi Safi: Has the novelist succeeded in making
good use of, and employing well in his works, the modern techniques of
narratology? What are the most salient influences on Safi’s narrative art of
some major political events such as the signing of the Oslo Accords? Has the
novelist succeeded in depicting the concerns and sufferings of the Palestinian
people in its persevering attempts to attain political, social and cultural
emancipation? How has the novelist managed to set out from his own private
vision and his personal experience to reach the sphere where he mirrors the
broader human experience in its yearning for progress, liberation and getting
rid of ignorance and captivity? The answers to these questions are to be found
spread out throughout the different sections of this thesis. In fine, the study
has also noted the interest that the novelist has in common with other local
novelists in foregrounding place and intensifying the employment of
mythology to the extent that the use of such devices has come to be regarded
as a distinctive characteristic of the post-Oslo Palestinian Novel, which could
constitute an interesting area of study for researchers concerned with
Palestinian narrative art.
Description
Keywords
اللغة العربية وآدابها , Arabic Language & literature